[HLUG] Ubuntu 12.04LTS - ok so far

[Sarah Chard]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17916879

Ubuntu getting a bit of publicity via the BBC website 

I have just uprated all our working office machines to 12.04 with clean
installs - after very careful backup 
I had stuck with the 10.04LTS through the inbetween versions and avoided
all upgrading whilst listening to the discussions about Unity v Gnome.

My PC's have old graphics cards so I am running the 2d version 
The main problem I had when installing was that one of the PC's had
nasty lines on the screen - but this has happened to it in previous
ubuntu incarnations so I tried out my tested solution of reverting to
the vesa driver and the problem was solved.

Unity is very different and takes a bit of getting used to - I can
understand why it is frustrating when you are used to working a certain
way however once you get to grips with how to switch between and within
open programs its quick and I like the HUD. I always ran Gnome Do/Docky
on 10.04 as it was an easy way to get to some of my files - the HUD is
even better. The extra space on the screen is great and although having
the menus only for the program you are working in at the top is a bit
disconcerting at first you get used to it quite quickly.

I do use terminal for some things but don't live on the command line - I
am happy to use it if needed but am more comfortable with Gui's and can
see that this version of Ubuntu looks nice and appealing, has been
rationalised to make it more intuitive for the average user and has made
installing even easier.
Some things have moved around but I soon found where synaptic package
manager had gone to and also where to add any ppa's that I needed

Installing 12.04 has also ment that i have finally (I hope) switched to
libre office - I mainly use Base for work and had big problems with
Libre office so stuck with open office on 10.04. I had some initial
problems within LO on 12.04 connected with exporting forms as .pdfs
(data not showing) but after fiddling around with some settings all
seems well and the earlier problems with LObase seem to have been
solved. (I am keeping my fingers crossed)

I have also just installed openmobilesuite - which works with my android
phone (i used the series60 remote with my old nokia and this is the
android version) it's still in development so a bit buggy but I can now
view all my contacts and send sms from my PC and once again have them
all saved to a local sqlite database - this is great as i like to save
work texts and was really missing this program.

I'm still getting used to the changes but it seems ok so far.


Sarah